Why Local Food?

Enhance the local economy: By purchasing produce and other items from local growers you are providing stability to your local economy through the support of local businesses.

Save our natural resources: Buying locally makes you an invaluable link in the process of saving resources such as fossil fuels and packaging materials. Also, we are right here in your community so the expense of transportation and delivery is kept to a minimum.

Provide the learning opportunities: Cape Locally Grown supporters provide member growers the means to help educate our community about the importance of sustainable agriculture.

Supporting a way of life: The number of small farms in the United States has decreased dramatically in the last decade. Please help us preserve an honest and worthy means of making a living.

Eat healthier: Most grocery store foods travel from 1,500 to 2,500 miles from farm to table. Studies have shown that fresher foods are healthier foods as foods lose vitamins and nutrition in storage.

Unfortunately, for many years our area has lessened its dependence on local food and local farmers and has trusted in the global food supply present in grocery stores and supercenters. We are now in need of rebuilding the network of our local farms and farmers producing foods (not just agricultural inputs and commodities) that make a region strong, resilient, and sustainable.

We believe that small, diverse, family-owned farms contribute to society’s overall health and the strength of our Southeast Missouri region.